shocked faces
by white-lilly31011
Summary: Ever wondered if the infamous flame alchmist ever had a family? you see thestory through the eyes of Iza Mustang roys little sister
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Roy! Roy! Please can I see? Please?!" Iza begged as she jumped up and down at her older brother's feet.

"Fine Iza, just be careful, ok?" Roy said as he knelt down to be some what closer to the level of his little sister, pulling the shining new silver watch out of his pocket.

"Ooooh, it's so pretty! Can I have one?" asked Iza, hoping that he might have an extra one in his pocket just for his adorable 7 year old sister.

"Wish I could Izzy but you can only get one if you past the state alchemy test." Roy replied trying not to hurt her feelings. 'After all,' he thought, "What does she know about state alchemists and the army? Nothing, except that our father was one, and died in combat somewhere up North.

"Aww, not fair," pouted Iza, "I promise that I'll become one just like you, big brother!" Iza said with all the raw determination a seven year old could muster.

"That's enough Iza. We don't want to bother Roy and- Watch Out! Your popsicle almost got his uniform!" Caroline mustang said as she veered her daughter away from her son who would soon be leaving, possibly never to return.

"Its ok mom, here squirt, try this on," Roy smiled as he placed his cap on her head, only to see her face light up with excitement. Suddenly the train's whistle blew and people on the platform started making their goodbyes. As the train whistled again, Roy carefully took his hat from Iza and gave his sister a hug, then gave his mom, who started crying, a hug and turned his back on the only family he had left to go be a dog of the military.

Sun shone through the window, making it clear that it was morning. Iza put down her alchemy book and rubbed her eyes. Had she been awake all night? It was definitely dark a second ago. She listened to the noise of the market, always packed with people and animals making loud and annoying noises. Iza groaned and walked over to the window to shut out the disorganized clatter, but one particular cry soared above the others, caught her ear, and was soon taken up by everyone in the marketplace.

"The war! Its over! The war in Ishbal is over with!"

With a rush of excitement typically seen only in small children on Christmas morning, Iza ran down the stairs to tell her mother, who was always up at the crack of dawn doing what ever it was mothers did.

"Mom! Mom! Its over! He's coming back! This is the best birthday ever!"Iza danced around the room, her mother joining in the merriment from the kitchen sink where she was washing her hands. Suddenly a wave of fatigue rushed over Iza, who had had a possible four hours of sleep. With a sigh of contentment, Caroline went over to her daughter who had slumped down in the chair, and kissed her on the forehead.

"Happy birthday my eleven year old girl, that truly is the best birthday present we could ever have hoped for you to get."

"Thanks mo-" Iza yawned widely enough to split her face, and looked at her mother again, but instead of the cheerful face it had been, it was more distant and blank

"So, you didn't have a good sleep last night, dear? Hmm?" The look her mother gave her could only be described as calculating.

"Uh, no, that is, I mean, I guess I didn't, maybe, I don't know?" Iza stuttered, to tired and surprised at her mother's quickness to try formulating a plausible lie.

"You've been reading those books again, haven't you Iza Mustang?"

"Uhh…..yes," Iza finally got out, realizing there was no point trying to put one over on her mother, but she continued, hoping to make some sort of amends, "But it was only elemental stuff, nothing dangerous, you know, just wind, water, earth, and fir-"

"Stop! Iza I don't want you reading those horrid books anymore!" Caroline shouted, breaking her usually calm demeanor. Iza sat in shock as the words played over in her head

"_was it something I said? Oh it was fire Roy's alchemy skill…oops"_ thought Iza as the two sat in silence. To break the ice, Iza stood up and hugged her mom, saying,

"Don't worry mom, he'll be back in a few days, then life will be slightly less abnormal around here." Caroline nodded and walked over to the frying pan, prepared to finish whatever she had devised as Iza's special birthday treat.

The days flew by, and as they saw soldier after soldier from the town come home, none of them Roy, they started to come face-to-face with their worst fear. That maybe Roy wasn't coming home after all. At any noise, however small, outside the house, Iza would run to the window, merely to see a dog or person walking by. Caroline was handling it much worse than Iza, sitting in her room and continuously watching the street from her window all day, forcing Iza to assume the role of mother/chore-doer around the house. Eventually, even though it killed her inside to even think it, Iza just gave up on the idea of Roy coming back home. Instead she spent every day taking care of her mother, who just sat at the window, unmoving, watching others enjoying life as she mourned the death of yet another of her alchemists.

"Mom, please, I'm begging you, eat something!" whined Iza seriously as she tried to force the soup into her mother's mouth. With a weak smile Caroline pushed the spoon away and said in a voice that sounded kind of far off, almost as if she wasn't really there.

"You know, your eyes look exactly like you father's and brother's," and with that, her already tear swollen eyes filled and she started to cry. Feeling as much pain as her mother, Iza gave her a hug, then left the room when Caroline pushed her daughter away from her.

It wasn't till dinner time that Iza tried yet again to force food upon her mother, but once again, her attempts failed. Tired, Iza went to her room and slowly got into her pajamas. Glancing towards her desk, her eyes happened to fall upon the still open alchemy books from the night before her birthday. A few words caught her eye, _human transmutation. _Curiosity got the better over and she walked over to the desk and took a look at what it read. With a gasp, Iza leaped from the room to go tell her mother of this new found information. Upon opening the door to her mother's room, she noticed that she was no longer in her chair. Iza blinked and looked around the room, finally finding her mother on the bathroom floor, not moving.

"Mom? Mom! No please! MOM!," Iza screamed as she shook her mother's limp shoulders. "Hold on mom, I'll be right back. Please mom, hold on!" Running down the stairs she tripped, landing on her side. She sat up cringing, ignoring the pain, and ran towards the doctor's house which luckily enough wasn't far.

Drawing the last part of the circle, Iza stood up and wiped away the beads of sweat that were collecting on her forehead.

"Ok, here it goes, all or nothing" Iza slowly placed quivering hands on the outward lines of the transmutation circle. For a moment it all seem to be going well, then, as the only way to describe it, little black hand like things started pulling on her right leg, tugging her inwards to some unknown destination.

Mrs. McGowan and her dog Scruffums were just at the end of their evening walk when an ear piercing scream sent them bolting towards the nearest bush. After a few moments, Scruffums braved a peek at the road they had so recently left. It was empty. As was the surrounding area. The woman and her dog took off for the town center, shouting for help the entire way as another head splitting scream sounded from behind her.

The town doctor found Iza almost unconscious from blood loss, writhing on the wooden floor of her living room, her right leg gone from the knee down. By the time he had it bound and under control, she had passed out. She did not wake up for eight days.

FIVE YEARS LATER

"Here you go Ms. Mustang, congratulations on passing the exam."

Iza ignored the obviously smitten major currently staring at her chest and opened the gleaming silver pocket watch with a satisfying click. Her pride and self respect made her positively glow, knowing that she had finally accomplished it, had finally lived up to the promise she made her big brother. It cheerily showed her the wrong time. Shaking her head, Iza Mustang clicked it shut, making a mental note to fix it later, despite her inner desire to throw it at the still staring major and demand a new one.

"I guess I should really be calling you Master Sergeant Mustang now. I'm sure your office will really miss the help with the paperwork." He said to her breasts. She hoped they weren't answering (?). Continuing to ignore him, she turned her chest away from him, and towards the door she soon hoped to be leaving. She had, however, taken no more than three steps when he was in front of her. Cursing her short legs, she looked up at him with what she hoped was an impassive face. He looked a little angrier than he had been a minute ago, the removal of her chest from his line of sight obviously not agreeing with him.

"Hey now, haven't you been taught to salute a superior officer before leaving a room? You could get into a lot of trouble for that up at Central."

"Thanks for the warning," she grudgingly murmured, throwing a half assed salute in his general direction before attempting to maneuver herself around him to the door that was now taunting her. As she expected but hoped against, he didn't let her.

"That's all I get for saving your ass? You could have been fired for that you know. Wouldn't you say you owe me a little more than that? You know, I could put a good word in for you with the higher ups at Central. Wouldn't you like that, hmm?" He leaned in closer to her with a leering look that seemed to be reserved for her chest. "What would you do for me, if I do that for you?"

She drew herself up to her lofty height of five foot nothing and glared at him as coldly as she could muster. Iciness pervaded the room and the man standing imposingly in front of her shivered a little, a slightly uneasy look creeping through the perverted one in his eyes. She hoped it was enough to make him back down, she was tired and definitely not in the mood for this. He seemed to regain a little of his courage at her silence and took another step forwards, his hands reaching out towards her.

Big mistake.

Without missing a beat, Iza had her hands out of her pockets and clapping together. As his hand roughly grabbed at her shoulder, she ducked in between his arms, her hands landing on his chest, palms open. There was a definite look of shock, amazement and terror in his eyes before-

BOOM

"….that's it? You turned my clothes to mud? What are you, stupid? Like that'll stop me, hey if you like it dirty, who am I to complain," He snickered at her, preparing to subdue her as she once again skipped free of his grasp at the last second, making sure not to get any of the mud on her uniform.

She tauntingly kept just out of his grasp while explaining as if to a child, "that's not just any mud, you know. Hehe, that's acidic mud. Good luck trying to get it off."

"What do you mean, acidic mu-" eyes widening he stopped chasing after her, starting instead to claw at his chest and stomach, "Ow!!! Eep! What the!! OWWW!"

Watching him with a satisfied smirk from the other side of the room was Iza.

"Yup, bet that stings," She continued, "I designed that one to cause the most pain while doing the least harm, have fun trying to put on any clothes for the next five hours. And there'll be no marks anywhere on your body by tomorrow, so if you try to tell anyone, you'll sound like an idiot." With that, she finally got to use the door that had been eluding her up until now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Iza stepped onto the busy platform with a sigh of relief; she had made it. The loud clang of the clock reminded her of the task at hand. She dug into her pocket, her fingers easily finding the crumpled scrap of paper, fishing it out. Her head shook at the two hasty, almost indiscernibly scrawled names written upon it...by none other than herself. Briefly scanning over the names of the officers that were to be picking her up she started scanning the crowd. She wondered at how she was supposed to identify them by their names alone, supposing that they would be in a uniform identical to the one she was currently wearing. After about thirty minutes however, she concluded that she may have been mistaken. Sighing and muttering words, that certainly wouldn't have made her mother proud, to herself, she scuffed the edge of her shiny new boot against the poor excuse for a paved platform.

"Stupid fucking excuse for a military, think they can run a country when they can't even keep their damn appointments. Assholes. This shitty pavement, when was the last time it was fucking repaved- BLUE!!!" Iza raced after the pigment she hoped belonged to a military uniform. Head down she pummelled her way through the mass of standing flesh to the far corner, until she ran headfirst into someone. "Oh! Excuse me," exclaimed Iza as she tried to put the blush that was creeping around the edges of her cheeks back were it belonged, in hell. She finally looked up as the tall officer in blue looked down. Apparently she had caught up. The officer blushed distractedly as he muttered an apology to her breasts around the cigarette he held loosely in his mouth. Suddenly an annoyed looking blonde female officer appeared from around the corner, coming up short at the sight of Iza, to whom she gave a funny look. After a moment however she shook her head and hit the still gawking officer in the back of the head.

"Judging by your state of dress, would I be correct in assuming you're the new subordinate?" barely waiting for Iza's nod, she carried on. "I'm First Lieutenant Hawkeye, and this is Second Lieutenant Havoc." She gestured towards the man who was desperately trying to act nonchalant. Before Iza could return the courtesy of the introduction, the impatient first lieutenant turned and strode out of the building at a brisk pace, obviously miffed at having lost time looking for Iza. She followed.

The three military officers walked out of the station and to the car that would be transporting them to headquarters. What should have been a silent ride alone in the backseat, however, quickly turned into something else entirely when Lieutenant Havoc got into the back with her, and babbled unintelligently in her general direction for the duration of the trip. Apart from a few well placed sighs, Lieutenant Hawkeye was paying no attention to the obviously smitten man in the back seat, or the slightly uncomfortable young girl beside him. Nevertheless, she couldn't stop glancing back at the new subordinate in her rear view mirror. There was just something about her new co-worker that she couldn't quite place, yet she was sure she had seen it before. Then as the female passenger rolled her eyes in exasperation, it hit her. The young master sergeant had eyes that were the mirror image of the Colonels. A honk diverted her attention from her thoughts back to the road; she swerved just in time to avoid the oncoming traffic.

Roy sat at his desk faking a look of interest while the shortest of the Elric brothers made a long winded speech about something Roy could careless about. His mind wandered aimlessly to the thought of the subordinate that was coming from the south. He hoped he could dump a lot of paper work on this one. A lot.

Iza followed along the winding corridors of the building till her superiors halted in front of a door that would mean endless paper work and having to work alongside, if Havoc was any example, plenty of overworked, undersexed men for Iza. The first lieutenant opened the door and walked in, Havoc following suit, leaving her standing outside working up the courage to enter. She heard someone berate the blonde woman for taking so long, calling her 'Riza'. Her nervous inner ramblings were interrupted by the exasperated yelling coming from some short blonde kid. Next an extremely large suit of armour attempted to distract her from working herself up to going in. She dragged her eyes away from the odd sights, took a deep breath and tried to introduce herself as she thought was appropriate. Unfortunately, due to nerves, her name and rank came out in a squeaky yell so loud it caught the attention of people down the hall.

"SERGEANT IZA MUSTANG REPORTING FOR DU--" her face was the picture of shock as her eyes lit on the man behind Lieutenants Havoc and Hawkeye, the suit of armour, the blonde kid, and the large desk at the end of the room. Tears came to her before words did, cascading down her face as she croaked out "R-Roy?"

All eyes turned to the man in question as his face slowly changed to match hers. He stood up, knocking over his chair without noticing. As soon as he was on his feet, he felt that they couldn't hold him and he had to grasp his desk for support.

With tears soaking her uniform and forgetting about all military edicts, she dashed through the staring spectators to the other side of the room and flung herself at him with all her might. As she crumpled into his embrace he managed one astonished word.

"Iza?"

She managed to hold back her tears for long enough to burst out with, "You're alive!! Oh my god, we all thought you were dead. I missed you so much! After mom died I was all alone, I thought you were gone too! Then it wasn't all for nothing." She finally subsided into incoherent exclamations of joy, sobbing into the front of his uniform.

Roy held her as tightly as possible; he didn't know how she was alive, let alone here, but nothing was going take her away from him now that he had found her. Finally he realized that they had an audience. He cleared his throat, dried Iza's face on his sleeve, and smiled down at her reassuringly before he looked up to speak to the rest of the room

"Everyone, this is my little sister Iza Mustang." His disbelieving voice explained.

Realizing the scene that they were making, and where she was, Iza stepped back from her brother and gave him a shaky salute. He smiled at this. Then he frowned. "Iza," his voice held a dangerous note that she hadn't often heard before. She took a step back. He took a step forward. "Iza, why are you saluting me? Why are you in our uniform? And what is at the end of that chain coming from your pocket? If it's what I think it is, you are in big trouble, missy." By now she was looking anywhere but at Roy. As she opened her mouth to attempt to get her out of the deep shit she was buried in, she heard a snicker from behind her. Slowly, jaw clenched, she turned around to glare at the source of the sound. The guy in the red coat was almost doubled up where he had been standing, barely attempting to cover up his obvious glee. Anger rising, she turned to Roy and said in a theatre whisper that was meant to be heard by all present.

"Hey brother, who's the short kid?"

The short kid in question abruptly stopped laughing, death written all over his face. He took on the new girl who was at least and inch shorter than he was.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A HALFPINT PIPSQUEAK? YOU'RE SHORTER THAN I AM! IF ANYONE WAS THE MOLECULE SIZED SHORTY IT WOULD BE YOU!" Iza looked at the short kid currently being restrained by the suit of armour with a look of superiority on her face.

Ignoring him she commented to no one in particular, "Wow, short kids in red jackets who work in the military are slightly amusing...while having absolutely no class, tact, or self-restraint." As she finished this sweetly, another yell was heard from the once again infuriated subject of her comment.

"$#) $(# $#$($( #&#$--," he was cut off by the Lieutenant...Bird...body part something...(Iza's not very good with names), firing a pistol that she pulled out of God knows where directly above his head, making his antenna swish in the wind.

Pulling herself together before anyone else in the room, Iza said with perfect control, "I have only met you for a second and so far I think you are an ass." This sentence was met with howling laughter from Roy, and more seemingly endless yelling from the riled shrimp.

After gasping for air, Roy finally regained his composure enough to announce, "This is the Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric, and his brother Alphonse Elric."

The suit of armour called Alphonse bowed and said something along the lines of, "I'm so sorry about my brother, he's very touchy about certain subjects!"

"Obviously he has issues he can't deal with without resorting to anger. It's typical in people who feel inadequate due to some physical aspect of themselves. Textbook case, really," said Iza, one eyebrow raised. Getting bored of fighting with Edward she started looking around the office. It was just large enough for the seven desks it contained; her desk was off in the corner. Even though she didn't want to, she walked away from her brother's side, and went to check out her desk. It had her name on the desk. Surprising how none of the people in the room read the tag and made some sort of connection, even her own brother. As she sighed and bent to open a drawer, she heard some panic stricken babble coming from Havoc's mouth from across the room.

"Roy honestly if I had known I wouldn't have ... please don't fry me! I'll stay away I promise I did nothing wrong!" He rambled, panicking as he tried to wipe up the drool coming from between his lips.

"Sir, I think it's a bad time to get rid of subordinates," Riza stated calmly, as if this were an every day occurrence.

Iza walked over to the bunch, obviously clueless as to what was going on, until Roy turned to her and started shouting. "Iza don't get near him! You hear me? And if he puts a finger on you, just tell me and he will be smoke before you can say alchemist!"

"And why should I stay away from the second lieutenant, colonel?" Iza asked, just so she could see her over protective brother go slightly red.

"He is a man who has many a women, well, wants many women, and I don't want you getting into that, do you hear me?!" A large amount of laughter coming from Edward interrupted this tirade. He was laughing so hard tears were clouding up his golden eyes.

"You're one to talk colonel!" gasped Ed as he sank to the ground because he couldn't stand while laughing so hard. Roy's face twisted in fury as Riza got both Edward and Alphonse out of the room, telling them to come back on a later date. There was a slight silence while everyone tried to get their wits together again. Then with a laugh, Iza went over to her desk and pulled out her watch to fix the stupid thing. Feeling eyes on her, she looked up to see Roy standing over her, his face a mask of no emotion.

In a deadpan voice, he stated, "So you're a state alchemist as well." Iza looked up into his face, trying to figure out what she should say. She settled on the truth.

"Yes, you of all people should remember the day you left for the war. I made a promise to you that I would become a state alchemist just like you. Once I thought you were de..." She sniffed and tried to check the tears that slowly rolled down her cheeks. Iza felt a hand on her shoulder; she looked up again to see his face, but this time it was filled with concern.

"Come on squirt; let's go for lunch or coffee or something. I know a little place that's close and has great food. And we need to talk about some stuff." Iza stood up, not bothering to shut her open desk drawers, and walked with Roy out of the room.

As they reached the door, she spun around to give a salute to everyone in the room, announcing, "It was nice to meet you all, uh, see you in a few." Then she followed her older brother through the corridor maze, occasionally saluting other members of the military that they would pass. Finally reaching their destination, Iza tugged on his jacket to get his attention while thinking,_"That__'__s mature Iza__ act like a bloody 8 year old__. C__ome on__ you__'__r__e__ sixteen__, act more like it__!"_

"Yes Iza?" Roy asked, hints of concern in his usually smooth voice.

"I need to tell you something that I don't want anyone overhearing, can we find a table in the corner where no one will see or hear us?" Roy looked back at the face of his little sister, deep in thought. She had grown so much, but something in her voice and choice of words made him very nervous. The two of them found their back corner table. Once they sat down, Iza took in a deep breath and started talking.

"Roy, don't be mad, what I did was wrong, but you have to understand the circumstances. Mom was dead, you were gone and I thought you were dead, and I had no other choice. I didn't want to be alo-" she stopped as a chubby waiter came over to get their drink orders.

"Uh, coffee thanks, just black," said Roy automatically. "What do you want Iza?"

"I uh, guess I'll have tea thanks," said Iza looking down until the waiter had waddled away. When he was gone, her solemn face came up and Roy could feel cold sweat running down his back. Deep down he knew what was coming next, as he had heard this story before.

"Roy, I tried to bring mom back," Iza said without preamble. Roy took a deep breath; trying to let his sadness and other mixed emotions out. "And it didn't go so well. There were...consequences." Iza reached down to pull her pant leg out of her boot.

"_Good G__od no__. Please not what I__ think it is__, please. W__hy did__n't I go__ back__why?__!"_ Before his eyes Roy saw what he had feared he would see. There was a glint of silver, which meant only one thing. Iza had unintentionally given up her leg to transmute something that could never have turned out to be their mother.

"I have automail, Roy"

Ed and Al walked down the street from headquarters, Ed still in a horrible mood. Alphonse was slightly enjoying the fact that his older brother got called a Shorty by a girl that was shorter than him. As they turned down a miscellaneous lane, Ed stopped outside a small cafe and called his brother to a halt.

"Al I'm hungry. Do you mind if we go in for a quick snack before we go?"

"Ok brother!" responded the suit of armour as the two walked into the cafe. It wasn't that busy but Ed was insistent that they go to the very back of the cafe so they wouldn't draw attention to themselves. Just as they reached the back, Ed noticed Colonel Mustang and his sister, who was bent over for some reason. As she straitened, Ed saw a familiar gleam coming from under her pant leg, which she had pulled up. Although, it was on the opposite leg from his own. Just as Al made a very obvious clanking noise, Iza spoke.

"I have automail, Roy"

Iza spun around at the metallic sound that came from behind her only to come face to face with the Elric brothers. They stood barely a few feet from where she sat.

"How much did you hear?!" barked Iza, panicking. Her yell threw Roy out of his trance like state. She was too preoccupied to notice that he was crying.

"Just that you're leg is made of automail." Ed explained as if it weren't that big of a deal. His attitude just served to tick Iza off even more.

"How can you be so calm?! I have never shown anyone my leg before! And where do you get off saying that as though it's no big deal?"

"My right arm and left leg are automail." Shocked, Iza was silent.

Realising their similar situations, Roy wiped the tears away and stunned them both by saying, "You two both have automail limbs, and you both lost those limbs the same way."

Wide eyed, both teenagers looked at each other in shock.


End file.
